"This really is.... another world."
Green grass that couldn’t coexist with freezing weather in reality, and snow scattering in the air. All of it felt like it was telling him this place was a different world.
Of course, it was also something he’d read about to some extent on the internet, but seeing it in person felt completely different.
And since they said monsters would come pouring out if a Break happened, he’d assumed there’d be something the moment he went in, but the snow-covered plain spread out so peacefully that it took the wind out of him a little.
Still, he’d been asked a favor, so Sihyun slowly began spreading his qi-sense wide into the open space ahead.
After he moved a few steps—
"Is it this?"
He could feel several presences clustered together a good distance away from where he was.
Frowning slightly at how far the man was, Sihyun bounced in place a couple times, cracked his neck with a couple quick pops to loosen up, and started stepping in a strange pattern.
Hoo-woong-
With a sound like the air whipping around, Sihyun’s silhouette vanished in an instant, leaving only flurries of snow swirling in midair.
Not long after, he arrived at the edge of a clearing where several boulders were piled up.
When he’d first come out of the Gate, it had been small, but at least there were trees stuck here and there—yet here, not even that could be seen. Sihyun kicked off the ground again and headed toward where the presences were gathered.
Grrr—
Just then, a vicious growl reached Sihyun’s ears as he ran. And soon, between gaps where unusually many large rocks were clustered together, he spotted several huge wolves wrapped in silver fur, howling roughly as if enraged, biting into a narrow crevice.
In a situation where anyone could tell there was something inside, Sihyun shook his head and walked closer.
"Aaah!! Save me!! Huhhh.... It stinks!! Agh!"
Through the loud overlapping snarls and animal growls, a voice—so small it even felt thin and frail—forced its way out.
It seemed like the voice of that “older brother,” and since it just kept going nonstop, making a huge fuss, it didn’t look like he’d taken any serious damage.
At least that much was lucky. Sihyun, who’d come running a bit urgently and had his hair messed up, brushed it back, then was about to leap as he sent inner energy through his legs—only to pause and sweep his gaze around.
Rock and dirt, and snow. With the barren surroundings offering nothing he could use as a weapon, he scratched his head a little as if troubled.
'Ah. I don’t want to use my fists. They’ll get dirty.'
Sihyun complained for only a split second, then quickly circulated Inner Power through his whole body and kicked off the frozen ground.
The hooded silhouette cut through the air like a hawk and shot straight up.
Then it seemed to stop at a point, and soon began pouring down like a meteor, gravity on its back.
The target was the crown of the wolf in front. Maybe they sensed the killing intent shooting down at them—wolves that had been drooling and snapping flinched and jerked their heads up.
"Too late."
Even as he fell, Sihyun’s expression didn’t change by even a hair, hardened and firm.
But a faint red qi blooming around him met the snow and steamed, writhing this way and that.
It looked like the tail of a shooting star. The eerie red Inner Power clenched in his fist stretched long as it combined with his falling speed.
[Shura Heavenly Annihilation Fist.]
Sihyun’s body twisted into a bizarre angle, then snapped back out elastically. And the fist—now completely red—shot straight out, using his shoulder as the axis, carrying all that propulsion.
Tukwakwakwaang!
It had enough weight that the four legs of a body big enough to be about the second floor of an apartment could be driven into the solid ground. A massive sound boomed, so big you couldn’t even guess it had struck flesh.
Snow and chunks of dirt painted the air and poured down in every direction, and the surface gouged out as if a crater had formed, revealing shredded, carved ground.
The wolf in the center couldn’t even scream properly, dead on the spot. Its insides had been churned by Inner Power and melted away, and bone shards had pierced through the skin, exposing the shattered skull as it was.
Then another wolf beside it opened a maw packed with layers of sharp teeth and, wildly excited, lunged at Sihyun.
Papapapap!
Sihyun kicked off the ground again and sprang up, then, ducking his head, ran forward like he was being fired out, using the leaning wolf’s corpse as a foothold.
[Heavenly Demon Blazing Flame Dance.]
Pu-hwak!
He swiftly lifted his body and appeared behind the charging wolf, then swung his leg forward in a huge arc. With the sound of something hard breaking, flames suddenly surged upward ahead.
Feeling the heavy impact through his shin, Sihyun curled one corner of his mouth.
Koo-ung.
At the same time, the wolf’s body—unable to even let out a death rattle—slowly toppled forward, head first, and then the blaze that rapidly swelled like it was flicking out its tongue swallowed the already-dead wolf in one gulp and vanished.
Black ash filled the air and scattered, but around Sihyun—who had already stepped a few paces away and planted his feet near a suitable boulder—it was clean, like nothing had happened.
"Everything’s fine, but if you’re gonna burn it, why not burn the ash too. This technique got made and then just stopped halfway."
Sihyun said something that would make any murim person recoil, watched the ash painting the air, then slowly released the thin qi barrier he’d had around him.
The surviving wolves—if they’d been human, their souls would’ve looked like they’d left their bodies—stood there blankly, drool dripping, then trembled and slowly backed away.
"Go."
And as if Sihyun’s word were a starting signal, the hesitant wolves turned and fled in a panic.
Since he wasn’t the type to enjoy killing anyway, Sihyun watched them indifferently, then slowly walked toward the rocks.
It was time to finish that unwelcome favor.
"Come out."
Sihyun moved right up close to where his final target was and spoke in a low voice. A moment later, a man with fluffy permed hair and an awkward-looking face peeked his head out from behind a boulder.
"W-Who are you...?"
"You asked for help, didn’t you. I came to help, so let’s go. Hurry."
When Sihyun tossed the words out like it was a bother, the man looked around with anxious eyes.
Then, at the red color soaking the snow thickly on the ground, he unconsciously lifted his head and shifted his gaze to behind Sihyun.
"Uh...? Uh! AaaAAAAAAAH!!!"
Only then did the man seem to actually notice the gigantic beast corpses—he jumped in place and screamed in terror.
Sihyun, caught off guard by the unexpected situation, quickly sealed his ears with Inner Power, yanked the screaming man toward him with a void-grasp, and mercilessly clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Don’t scream. If you do, I’ll force your mouth shut."
Even if he’d chased the wolves off, this was still enemy territory. There could be more hiding, and if he messed up, he could interfere with Hajung’s work—so there wasn’t a single good thing that could come from drawing aggro like this.
When Sihyun spoke coldly, the man, his mouth covered, widened his eyes and hurriedly nodded.
And as he calmed down quickly, the eyes that had been shaking wildly found their place, and his heartbeat slowed. Sihyun checked his eyes once, then slowly lifted his hand from his face.
"Hyungnim!"
The sudden form of address made Sihyun lose strength for a moment, nearly stumbling, and he quickly tensed his leg to straighten it.
"Yeah?"
"Thank you for saving me! Please allow me to call you hyungnim!! Your heart is the absolute best, just like your outstanding looks!!"
The man who’d looked dazed kept rattling on, clasping both hands tightly and staring straight at Sihyun.
At first he’d seemed frantic, but his eyes rapidly changed, and now they weren’t just sparkling—there was something that felt like madness.
Seeing that bright smile like the guy who’d been screaming a second ago had vanished, Sihyun’s head started to ache.
What the hell does this guy even do?
But it was annoying to nitpick every single thing and waste time, and he wouldn’t see him again once they got out anyway, so Sihyun reluctantly nodded roughly.
"Yeah. Sure...."
"Thank you!!! You’re my lifesaver! Actually, I chased after this because I wanted to be of help to Hunter Hajung.... But I didn’t think I wouldn’t even be able to get close. I was too reckless...."
Before he could even respond, the man spilled out a long stream of TMI. With a briefly fed-up expression, Sihyun looked at him again at the words “help Hunter Hajung,” and activated Insight.
Lee Gyumin [□□□□ (B)]
Title [Simple Charge]
Stamina - □□
Strength - □□
Agility - □□
Intelligence - □□
Mana - □□
Luck - □□
'Lee Gyumin. A B-rank Hunter.... “Got swept up,” my ass. No, I get why he’d have confidence. But why was he hiding like an idiot?'
"I took the Hunter ranking test recently, and it came out really high.... And then a Gate popped up right nearby, so I thought maybe it was fate...."
"Haa...."
As if answering Sihyun’s thought, the cause of this whole mess spilled out of Lee Gyumin’s mouth.
It was ridiculous.
Even if this Gate was supposedly C-rank, in the end it was an explosive Gate. Even if the monsters were low difficulty, in game terms it was a time attack—you had to clear it as fast as possible and close it quickly.
There was no way a coward like that could handle it in one shot.
Sihyun glanced at Gyumin with a slightly pathetic look, then, seeing the eyes still staring at him clearly, he slowly shifted his gaze forward again.
It was a little burdensome.